What are the key indicators that the Game of School is being played?
How did the GOS influence your own view of school and learning in high school?
How are these views affecting your approach to being a student at URI?
What role do you think the GOS play in efforts to improve schools?
This article really made me think. Especially the bit about asking questions. We've all had or known exceptional teachers, and we've had not so great ones as well, but why don't those 'not-so-great' teachers ask the fantastic teachers why they're so good with kids, or how they keep a class engaged? On the other hand, why don't teachers ask students, "What can we do to make this truly important to you, to make you willing to actually work hard?" I feel these are questions that, if asked, could really turn around 'The Game of School', and could positively change things. The key indicators that the Game of School is being played is when kids aren't asking real engaging or thought-provoking questions, or when it's apparent and obvious that a teacher or student is simply doing the minimum to get by, or scrape a B. We all know people who have 'succeeded', as in gotten a degree or graduated high school, simply by doing the barest requirements, and never digging deeper, yet they still get the same 'reward', in this case a diploma or certification, as someone who really worked hard and was passionate about their work. I know I was certainly guilty of playing the Game of School in some classes in high school, for example the classes that weren't my favorite. But why weren't they my favorite? What makes more class more interesting over another? Can any class be good if the teacher is good? I think so. Right now, I find all of my classes very engaging, but, say next semester when I have to take Statistics, I need to avoid falling into playing the Game of School. I took a Stats class in high school, so I need to avoid the mentality of, "oh, I already know all this, and I want to be a spanish teacher so this class doesn't really matter as long as I pull off a B average". But since I am preparing myself for this, hopefully I can prevent it. I am so lucky that I got enough financial aid and scholarship money to come here, that it seems a waste to slack off or not be fully interested in a class. Almost like a lost opportunity.
The “Game of School” is a great read that has a lot of points that I didn’t really think of before. In the very beginning it says basically that yeah there are some issues with school systems because nothings perfect, but it’s the way we look at these problems that makes them even worse. One of the worse problems is that the students are literally playing a game with their schooling. The example given was that the children had to read a story and then ask a question about it. But, the kids cheated the system and read the first page and would then ask a very ambiguous question about the book in general. The kids are playing the game and are winning. The sad thing is that they don’t realize that they are actually losing. They aren’t able to understand and take part in the deep learning we have been talking about. By cheating the system and only learning the facts needed to ace a test, and forgetting it all once the test is handed in, they aren’t able to experience the full effects of school. I never really thought of this before but we all do it, we learn what we absolutely need to “just to learn” and that’s it, nothing more nothing less. We have been playing this game of school our whole lives, with little realization of the impact it would have on us. Looking back now I can realize I wasn’t ever a deep learner and wish I was. I might be a totally different person with different and more intellectual views on everything. Clearly this can all be changed though. I am a perfect example. I was never a deep learner, always knowing just what I had to do well on the tests and doing just enough classwork to get me through the class. But now, I know how bad that is and how great it is to actually do all the work and more. You learn so much more and you aren’t constantly worried that you studied the wrong little bit of info. I have a better overall concept of everything and it is MUCH more beneficial than playing the game of school.
Everyone at some point in their life is guilty of playing the Game of School. I am very guilty of playing the game because it's so easy to play. After reading this passage, and even before reading this passage, I knew school was a game, and that a lot of the really "smart" kids were actually just really good at playing the game. One thing that I want to address is that it is not the student's fault for playing this game when it's so tempting. The hard part about this game is that a student doesn't fully learn the things the teacher is teaching which is unfortunate for both the student and the teacher. Obviously is a student doesn't learn the material it hurts them in the long run. However, it also hurts the teacher because in a sense they aren't doing their job, which is to help educate students. The other unfortunate aspect of the game is that it's so easy to play. All students have different learning styles and different strengths. In the article it talked about how the students read books and assigned a reader so they didn't all have to read. I can recall numerous times when I did this in school. It was the easiest and FASTEST way to get things done. I want to emphasize the pace of it because that's why the students play the game. Especially the older a student gets, like in high school, it's hard to be a well rounded student, the one that gets good grades, is involved in sports and extracurriculars and have a social life. There comes a point in a students life where they need to balance out all of their activities, so they try to get everything done fast in order to have all these different aspects of their life. The Game of School is truly unfortunate for everyone involved. The students and the teacher must change their mindset in order to get rid of this game. Even though I played the game all throughout my school experience so far, and I do think there are benefits to it, I think that it must be stopped because students needs to actually learn and retain the information that they're learning.
When we stop to think about it, school is very much like a game that we are forced to play, and often can't wait for it to be over. People are constantly trying to earn the grades that will move them forward a few spaces on the game board, and they only do what they have to do to get to the end. Students spend a lot of time waiting for others to take their turn and trying to figure out the game themselves. Every game has tricks, and once those tricks are figured out, the game becomes simple. In school, it is often the same way. People who are desperate to get those As or perfect SAT scores spend a lot of their time trying to find ways to "cheat the system," and succeed by doing only what is required of them.
In my opinion, we have all played the game of school. There were nights in high school where I sat at my desk and simply thought "well, there is no way I can do all of this tonight." So, I would map out my time, trying to figure out what I had to do to get by. I would say "Okay, so I'll start with my response paper for religion, since I have to submit that online. Then, I'll do my math homework, because the teacher checks that. That will leave me two hours to study for history, since the test is tomorrow. I can skip the reading, because that seems to be busy work, and the teacher won't check that." This is similar to the children who had to come up with the response questions based on their reading. As soon as they found out that the teacher wouldn't check anything as long as they had the response question, they would just stop there (Fried 94). After seeing me stressed, even my own mom would say "Hayley, just do what you have to do, and then go to bed." Those stressful and seemingly impossible nights were not enjoyable, because I was just trying to play the game of school and do whatever I had to do to win it.
Its not easy to get out of this mindset. If a long reading is assigned, it is impulse to try to get it done quickly, which makes it hard to actually enjoy it. During my first month at URI, I have done a lot of reflecting on deep learning, and learning about myself and who I want to become. Now, in college, I see school more as a way to prepare me individually for my own future, rather than forcing a whole group of students to learn the same old basic facts. However, I still find myself seeing homework as a tedious task with a lot of reading and busy work. A personal goal of mine is to think deeply and critically about all of my work, rather than see it as a list of things that I have to complete before I can move on with my day.
In order to stop the game of school, students, teachers, and administrators are all going to have to work together, and it is by no means going to be easy. The phrase "I don't wanna do homework" is far too prevalent in today's modern culture. People see homework as part of the game; a step that they have to complete before they can move forward on the game board. Students are too concerned about pleasing the teacher, and teachers are too concerned about just teaching to get their money, without caring whether or not the students get As or Fs. The key to ending this game is mindset, and everyone has to reevaluate their own mindsets and open them up to make learning an experience, rather than a game.
I often felt as though school were a repeating pattern, each and every day. I would wake up to that dreaded sound of the alarm at the same exact time five days a week, look out the window at the dark world outside and wish for nothing but to crawl back into the warmth of my bed. Every day was the same. Same assignments, just with different wording. Same tests but with different numbers and words inputted into the questions. It felt as if we were all robots, going through the motions, as if we had no control over what we did. I feel as though it is the strict order and pre-programmed practice that is turning school into something that we dread as students. There is no longer any excitement or sense of wonder as to what we will learn that day at school. By the time we reach our senior year of high school, the anticipation and enthusiasm that we once had in our elementary days have disappeared. The older we grow, it seems as though the less passionate our teachers feel towards helping us learn, and our education has become not about discovery, but memorization. The magic of learning has dissipated. We need to be engaged, drawn in and hooked to what we are learning.
The Game of School absolutely exists. It seems as though students these days are making it their goal to exert as little energy as possible into their education. We have become minimalists who find shortcuts, who cheat and rely on the art of memorization to perform well. There was another section of this excerpt that truly caught my attention. It is the fact that most people in a school are thinking about the steps ahead and not what they are doing right that second. When you take notes in class you think about the exam that is going to be based on them. You desperately try to remember the hints that your teacher told you in class of what the test would be on. When a teacher assigns homework, you think about how it will impact your grade if you do not complete it. We as students have grown to focus on outcomes and results, not what is happening at that very moment. This is a mistake because it disguises moments of discovery. How can you discover, learn and treasure something when all you can think about is what comes next? Like a check list, school feels like an obligation and less of a desire. Figuring out how to change the perspective of students back to the first grader, when everything was fresh and new to the mind. We must be eager to learn because that it what our future depends on. That hunger to gain new knowledge and improve our skills is what will drive us through life. We need to take our lives by the horns, by stepping up, living in the moment and performing to the best of our ability.
The article from Fried's The Passionate Teacher shows an insightful argument. The game of school is a reality among the majority of schools. Schools aren't just designed for learning and gaining information, but are instead manipulated like a game where students see solely the end goal. Some indicators of the game of school are the test with short answer because of the effort involved in reading essays, the push for involvement in activities to look good on resumes, and the students who will follow teachers exactly to receive an "A." Getting through school has turned into going through the motions and making things look good from the outside.
In my town, helicopter parents were common and there was nothing they wanted more than for their child to look like the best. I knew lots of people involved in things they hated, just to give them a boost when applying for college. For example, people would be involved in community service, which from the outside looks great. However, they didn't enjoy what they were doing except for the fact that it made their resume more competitive. At my school, parents competed with other parents about whose child took more AP courses, not because their child actually enjoyed the subject, but just to play the game of school. In high school, I always tried to do what it took to get the A, and looking back, I believe that was everyone's goal.
Now that I am at URI, things are different in a good way. I don't believe the game of school is as strong and competitive because it is a new kind of school. I do believe some people are here just to receive a degree with the littlest work possible and to be on their way, and I do believe that some professors just care about getting their paycheck, but I know things are different. Since college has a big price tag and it is setting students up for the workforce, it is even more crucial that they focus on actually learning the information and understanding each course. There are not as many things to get in the way such as helicopter parenting and troublemaking students and it is up to each individual to tackle school on their own. I want to take things beyond the game of school in college because the game of school is only going to hurt in the long run.
Lastly, I believe that the game of school is hurting the efforts to improve schools. People need to change their mindsets right now. School systems might be thinking that they will just give easier tests to improve their school standings and grades or that they will hire teachers who will pass students that give little effort. If schools took the time to see the problem, they can create a solution.
When reading The Game of School, I often reflected on my own high school experience. The author of "Passionate Teaching" lays out indicators of the Game of School, which include students asking questions about reading assignments based off only the first page or asking questions so wild that the teacher knows did not come from the reading at all. Thinking back, I realize that not only I myself, but my teachers were participating in the game of school. I became well aware of the expectations of my teachers and did just that. I was under the assumption that the grade received at the end of the year defined what type of students I was. And honestly, it did. I received mostly As, but how many of those As did I really deserve? I've always wanted to learn and be a deep learner, but my teachers taught in a strategic way that made it near impossible to be anything more.
Looking back on how I viewed high school and grades, I realize that this is not true. Higher grades do not mean you are any smarter, it just meant you knew how to take tests. Majority of my high school career, the SATs was a main topic of discussion. We always spent some advisory days out of the year to focus on SAT preparation, and in later years, every advisory class became a SAT prep class. Typically, students in my school used advisory as a free period to get other work done, however, I used advisory to get advice from my teacher. Due to their being no time for that anymore, I feel as though my relationship with my advisory teacher suffered my junior and senior year. And until today, I have always thought she changed and lost interest, but now realize that she was just another pawn in the game of school.
The reading mentions how teachers do not do what they can do to help us better our learning. I do agree that teachers sometimes get stuck in the routine of being told what to teach and focusing their whole lesson plans on that, however, I think more responsibility should be on the students. I thoroughly believe that when students start to publicly stick up for their education and explain how they feel, a change will happen and they will be heard. It's easy to have a debate among adults about the needs of students, but what would happen if you brought actual students into the debate? I think then is when we will see improvement in the American Educational system.
In the reading there are both negative and positive impacts today's school system makes. Clearly, there is an issue with the way of learning, but no one seems to honestly approach the topic. Everyone seems to know there is a problem but doesn't quite know what to do. I believe that when the voice of the students is heard, we will change the future of learning.
Many of us have been playing the game of school since we were young. You know it's being played when you have students completing assignments for the sake of passing and getting good grades, not giving a second thought about the importance of the information. Teachers breeze through the class curriculum for the sake of time and getting all the information out the students with little regard of whether or not they understand it. Administrators care about the outward appearance of the school and their own reputations, taking little notice the presence or lack of learning. There is one quote in particular that I really related to. "Waiting, in fact, is a major part of playing the Game of School: waiting for someone else to answer the question; waiting for someone else to take the initiative; waiting for the bell to ring; waiting for the day to end; waiting to graduate; waiting to retire" (Fried 98). Many of my memories from high school revolve around waiting. It would be impossible to list how many times I checked the time on my phone or stared at the clock, waiting for class to end to move on to the next one until the day was over. Everyone had the same goal: just get by. In fact, I played the game of school very well. I knew what information the teachers expected us to know. I knew what I had to do to get by and I did whatever it took. I've had countless teachers who have taught straight from the textbook just to assign a number of comprehension questions after for homework. This by the book teaching didn't foster any inspiration or interest in me as a student, and caused me to complete the assignments for the sake of getting it done. I looked around me as administrators cared more about what girls were wearing to school instead of focusing on what is being learned in the classroom (yes, leggings are actually banned from my high school now). I had a teacher who was so focused on his retirement at the end of the year that he rarely made an effort to come to class and instead left five or six problems from the chapter we were covering on the board to complete. I was conditioned to play the game, and I was good at it. Coming into college, I've realized this view of school as a game is unacceptable. I'm setting myself up for failure if I do the minimum to get by and graduate. How will I be prepared for my future life and career when I look back on my education as a game I beat? It's time for teachers, students, administrators and parents to take responsibility for the learning and well-being of children. School should be a safe haven, an environment that fosters learning and creativity and allows you to ask questions and formulate opinions. To get back to the reality of school and stray away from the game, teachers need to focus their class time and attention on making sure the students are comprehending the material, and aren't merely getting by. Students need to take initiative and responsibility for their learning, and realize that they are only hurting themselves if they don't put in a full effort. Parents need to be supportive of their children and take whatever means necessary to help them succeed. Administrators need to take their focus off of high test scores and their own appearnace and ensure that the school is a suitable learning environment for students. While not everything in school is doom and gloom, we still have a long ways to go. It's going to take a team effort to eliminate the game and reenter the reality.
While reading, I felt like I was really able to relate to everything that the author was saying. Throughout my secondary school experience I never really noticed that teachers were always giving us multiple choice answers over essay based; I never really noticed that my creative mind, thoughts and opinions were being pushed aside to make their own lives easier. Every day my teachers would just stand in front of the smart board, with the chapter typed out on to a nice power point presentation, read off of the board, give us a worksheet on it for homework, and that was it; very rarely was there ever a discussion about it, or a time to challenge something or relate this new information to things in our everyday lives, we were simply learning the facts, that was all there was to it. Not to say that this isn't a form of education, it is, it just lost seems like our generation has given up thinking for ourselves and going that extra mile to really strive for something new and unknown. It's also really hard to even try and think of a way to fix this, because people definitely are being educated this way, just maybe not in the most effective way. Standardized testing really messes with my brain; I simply just do not understand it's purpose. In what way do the SATs help you, honestly. Because the people who do well on them pay a lot of money to get a tutor to teach them how to take the test, most people aren't actually qualified. The SATs and ACTs only test a few "important" subjects, but there are so many different kinds of learners, which really frustrates me. In the classroom I always have a lot to say and share about my thoughts on something and how it relates to the world, and what the underlying meaning is, but I'm constantly being limited and being pushed back by having engraved in to my head that these are not important skills; I will not achieve in life because the SATs do not test on these skills. Our society is thinking so backwards; why cram learning in to a few small categories, when we can be shaping all sorts of different kinds of people? Musicians and artists need to be shaped differently than mathematicians and doctors, these people all learn differently, so why are we teaching them the same things?
When I heard the title “ Game of School,” I truly had no idea what they meant. After reading the article I agree entirely on its content. Most kids do see school as just something that needs to be done instead of a learning experience and a self-betterment theory. To this day, I admit, I find myself arguing with assignments that seem like nothing more than unnecessary busywork. I know they have to get done and therefore I take nothing away from them. I find it extremely difficult especially with assignments I know won’t be graded. We can see that the Game of School is being played everywhere in kids such as those who with bogus excuses. “ The dog ate my homework” was a big joke when I was little. I, surprisingly, ever heard it a few times actually try to be used. These are the kids who had no intention of doing the assignment when they thought it wouldn’t be graded but then find themselves in a bind when it is time to hand it in. Finally being able to understand the importance in school and ALL of my assignments, I find it easier to prioritize and complete said assignments with a different mindset. In high school, I never would have been the kid to stay up all night to get in a paper or study for a test. I would get what needed to be done for school done or at times I would simply skip to avoid the work. I would arrive at school the next day with the completed assignment and a good nights rest. I never really read what had to be done if there wasn’t an assignment to follow. Sadly, I know I am not the only one who did this and others continue to do so. I think to change school to no longer be a game, would be nearly impossible. As a kid, you look for the loophole in everything and want to complete what needs to be done as quickly as possible to get on with your fun activities. No one at age 10 cares deeply enough about their work to put off a play-date outside with friends. These kids do the bare minimum and wind up paying for it in their habits as they age. If we can destroy the game of school, we will have more deep learners and a much smarter generation.
I thought the idea of "playing the Game of School" was interesting because I have a hard time looking back at my education and seeing the indicators that the game was being played. With project based learning, its really easy to motivate students to learn about what they are interested in, which in turn makes for great class share outs and discussions. I can, however, see the Game of School being played at my sister's high school, because she goes to our town's public school. I'm surprised everyday by the stories she comes home with about teachers - teachers calling kids bad things, giving up on good teaching, or just being lazy when it came to helping students succeed. I don't know how much I agree with the "Game of School" idea. I think it's a nice analogy for some aspects of bad education, but for me, a game is too real, too much a reality. One the one hand, Fried is arguing that the GOS is imaginary, but on the other he argues that it also exists in reality.
The reading didn't really change my personal view of education, because I have not experienced the GOS personally on a large scale. I can understand that for some assignments in my life I just did whatever I had to, but I really do get something out of every homework assignment or reading. I do think there is a big connection between the GOS idea and the mindsets we learned about, as well as with the idea of strategic and deep learning. This analogy just takes things out of a student lens and into a lens through which one can view an entire school.
I always knew The Game of School was apart of my life, but never knew how to explain it. After reading this it was like the author knew my exact thoughts and wrote them down on paper. The Game of School is relevant is almost all students lives where I'm from. Since elementary school we were forced to do reading and writings without any questions asked, and the teachers never seemed very interested in what we were curious to while learning. Middle school and high school were no different from elementary school, probably even worse. I probably had at most three teachers a year that actually cared about their students, and made learning exciting. These teachers are the reason I would like to become a teacher. These teachers stood out to all the students, you never heard a bad things about them, all the students wanted to have them as teachers, and I was lucky enough to have them. I never want to become the teachers mentioned in The Game of School. I want to care for my students, enlighten them, and show them their brilliance. It is appalling it me that teachers and students feel this way towards school. Obviously when I have teachers playing this "game" I play it as well, but I wish it didn't have to be this way. It is time that the way schools work in our country need to change for the better.
Both students and their teachers play a crucial role in the classroom. It is a symbiotic relationship. In today's classroom, a teacher whose students' test scores plummet and grades drop will almost certainly catch flak. Administrators or parents may suggest that teacher is simply not effective in the classroom and lacks the ability to inspire students into a drive towards better understanding. On the other end of the spectrum lies the student. A student, no matter how brilliant and passionate their teacher may be, may choose on their own to reject these teachings, and to carry on into their schooling, dispassionate and unaware of the impact this will have on their future.
As in the first example given by Fried in the after school YMCA program, the kids quickly figured out how to get by with the minimum amount of work. This, and work like it that we see at a later level, is evidence of the Game of School being played. Sure, it might not be too hard to identify a teacher's system and to learn how to get by with minimum effort. I must admit, I've been guilty of it in the past. At the same time, I've encountered teachers who completely make up grades, don't read the assignments which many students work very hard on, and are extremely biased in the classroom. These are all examples of this Game being played.
In my personal high school experience, I never liked to play teachers, and I disliked when despite my initial efforts in the classroom, when teachers played me. Again, I must fess up to my own crimes. I, from time to time, took the easy way out, having charted my teacher's expectations through and through, took the easy way out. Whether that be cutting corners on a paper or other assignment, or in some cases, not turning an assignment in, I'm not proud of it. In very few of my classrooms however, it was very, very evident to everyone present that we were being played, and that we in turn were okay to play right back.
Now that I'm here at URI, I'm determined to avoid these behaviors. I believe when I've committed these academic sins in the past, they were in part spurred on by teachers who clearly did not care all that much. Even if I was to encounter such behaviors here, I'm determined not to look back, and to continue to persevere in the classroom and always do my best. To improve schools in the future, students need to understand at an early age that an education is necessary in today's world, and that despite how boring some parts of it may be, paying attention and applying yourself in school is a matter of huge importance. Students going into high school need to understand that they can determine so much of their future in the next four years and that while they may be able to play the Game in many situations, this will not benefit them in the long run. At the same time, we need to fill every classroom with educators who truly care about these kids. There must be effort on both sides, but as teachers encounter students who just seem to not care, they may become staid and less passionate in their role. I don't know how that can be fixed, but that a teacher's visible effort and care in the classroom has such a huge impact on kids needs to be something that students understand as well.
The Game of School refers to strategic learning; doing the bare minimum to perform well on tests and projects without intending to retain any information. The author of "Passionate Teaching" lays out indicators of the Game of School, which include students asking questions about reading assignments based off only the first page or asking questions so wild that the teacher knows did not come from the reading at all. Teachers, too, play the game of school: Fried says teachers spend far too much time taking attendance, giving out seating assignments, and assigning homework and tests and not actually teaching. The students see the teacher is "skating by" doing the bare minimum, and so they are not motivated to work any harder. Jaded administrators do not tend to oppose these policies, that is, until standardized test scores say their schools do not perform well. The author says there are different types of students: A students who do whatever the teacher asks but do not think for themselves, B students who write in clichés and assume that will be enough to earn a good grade, C students who do even less work to get by, and D students who should be failing but somehow are not. Students who do not attempt to ask questions or debate with other students also play the Game of School; they either do not care about what is going on or do not want to give their classmates the impression that they care. Teachers who teach without stopping to explain their subjects and assign short-asnwer instead of essay questions and administrators who care more about lesson plan completion and having a violence- and vandalism-free school than having a well-educated student body are also indicators of the Game of School. Guidance counselors who place underprivileged kids in low-level classes participate in the Game of School, as do parents who do not complain about that practice. Parents also play the Game of School by complaining about their children's grades without trying to understand the curriculum or push their children into things that will "look good for college" without their interests.
I definitely used the Game of School in high school; I prioritized courses based on which were the most difficult, and, regrettably, which I cared about the most, even though all were equally important to my education. In freshman year, I did not even do all of my math homework, and math always fell behind science classes because I never liked the subject. By senior year, however, I had adjusted my learning and was determined to succeed in all of my classes, and my grades reflected that. Beyond grades, though, my personal knowledge base reflects my effort; I truly remember my work from my senior year courses, not because they were the most recent, but because I embraced deep learning instead of strategic learning and saw its benefits. In college, I plan to continue deep learning, researching subjects from each course that interest me and attempting to understand the core parts of every class on a deep and personal level so I can retain information long-term and relate it to information for other courses.
Throughout The Greatest Obstacle We Face, Fried describes a languid school environment that all of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, can easily recall as being a near constant throughout our education. I certainly recognized several of the motifs discussed by Fried from my high school and early-education schooling. “The Game of School”, as defined in The Greatest Obstacle We Face, is the lackadaisical learning environment where “students pretend to learn, and teachers pretend to teach”. Throughout high school I often myself unwittingly playing “The Game of School” creating the surface-level appearance of a dedicated student while consistently avoiding unnecessary work and maintaining a high GPA with as little work as possible. Although I am trying to throw off the shackles formed by my time spent playing the game, I can still feel years of bad habits trying to take me over even in college. I believe that in order for any type of scholastic reform to be accomplished, students, teachers, and adminstrators must acknowledge that there are inherent flaws in the game being played. While teachers and students wordlessly play the game, there is no chance for schools to ever achieve real learning past the surface.
The Game of School This is by far the realest thing I have ever read. I am 100% guilty of playing the game of school because like stated in the reading I did what I had to do to get the grade I wanted. It sounds horrible, but it is also extremely eye opening to read this. My teacher last year for English never made us actually write a paper. We would work on one in class which was usually about a book that we read in class and by read I mean we would listen to it on a tape. Then she would tell us to grab out a piece of paper and just answer the essay question and as long as it was handed in on time then you would receive a good grade. I do think it is because teachers do not want to stray away from the curriculum because they are scared. I can recall another instance where someone asked a teacher about a specific topic and the teacher said he used to teach it, but now with all the testing he had to teach only the important things for the tests to finish up what he had to cover by the end of the school year. There are some teachers that are extremely passionate about teaching and truly make you work in the classroom and earn the grade and then there are others that play the game of school. In my personal opinion I think that at some point or another every student and teacher is guilty of playing the school of game.
(I just wanted to write about what came to mind as soon as I finished the reading, but if you want me to use the questions as a guide in which I just saw now I will fix this!)
While reading The Game of School, I couldn't help but think about all of my wasted time in high school and middle school. This reading opened my eyes as to what I was actually being taught in school, as opposed to how I want to learn. The "game" was to not truly develop and use our creativity, but to memorize and "get the A." This vicious cycle "taught" students about standardized testing, how to take tests, and how to barely scrape by. I remember that growing up, I was taught to believe only the smartest students got the A, the average students' B's, the unmotivated received C's, and the true haters of school got D's and F's.
Looking back, I realize that this is not true. A's were given to the students who had memorized the material, not truly understood it. Getting the highest grade didn't mean that you were better than anyone else, it just meant that you memorized that particular formula or word for that particular test. "...the curriculum is loaded with so much material that it can only be "covered" through constant lecturing and note-taking... Game-playing artificiality replaces authenticity, and enduring learning falls by the wayside. (p122)" I honestly cannot remember a time in high school where teachers really tried to make me find the answers to thought provoking questions. I was only asked to memorize and study for a test. A huge part of my education has always been CMTs, SATs, and ACTs. Teachers made it out that these examinations would affect us for the rest our lives, and put a huge emphasis on testing. The first time I took the SATs, I got an average score. I was beside myself. I had been trained to believe that average was bad, or unacceptable. If I wanted to succeed, I had to get that 'above and beyond' test grade. Perhaps the most important thing I learned in high school came from one teacher. She believed that testing was not an applicable way to test students knowledge, and that a test score did not define your intelligence. While studying for the SATs, she told me that "You don't get smarter suddenly and get a better score. You learn how to take the test. It's not a matter of intelligence." To this day, I agree with her statement. As the reading says, there are negatives and positive aspects about modern schooling, but nothing will change if we don't change our own mindset. We cannot play the game of school as we do and hope for the best or think that it will change on its own. Each of us needs to add and change an aspect of it so that students and teachers are no longer dancing around the subject, but truly learning.
The "Game of School" is not a myth. From my own experiences and all I have witnessed, this "game" is frequently played. I think curiosity is bestowed upon our youth at birth. I have worked with children in several different circumstances whose ages ranged from five to ten. Curiosity and the will to learn has always been a common denominator. However, it seems as though in regards to homework the children only are concerned with receiving credit for doing it. Similar to the example in the article, the children I have worked with try to get out of reading their assignments and only want to know the answers. While growing up, I strived for perfection. I did all my assignments in full and wanted to understand what was being asked for me. My family had always stressed the importance of academics. Nevertheless, as I got to high school I came to the realization that I was working harder than many of my peers but I was given the same amount of credit. Therefore, there was many occasions in high school where I would get the answers to homework from one of my friends or wrote down anything without bothering to check if my answers were correct. Many of times I did this because I knew my teachers would not check it. Something from the article that resonated with me was when the author brought up the point that many teachers do not ask what they can do to help us enhance our learning. I think that it is up to the student to want to obtain knowledge but having a teacher who cares helps immensely. A key indicator that proves the "Game of School" is being played is students graduating without knowing many ideas that school was supposed to teach them. The "Game of School" influences how I view the education system because it makes my outlook a little depressing. I think learning is a beautiful, vital aspect of life and it is a shame many people do not take it seriously. After knowing this information, it makes me want to work to the best of my abilities as a student.
Students play at least a fifty percent part in their own education – and, personally, I would argue more of a percentage. My mom always used to say, “You take out exactly what you put in.” If you put in nothing worthwhile, that’s exactly what you’re going to take from it. Personal experience has taught me that that’s true – the subjects I loved in high school and put more time into, the better I did in them. When I barely paid attention to them, I got poor grades. Doing well can be very difficult, especially as you pay attention to the messages other students and even educators can send, but it is incredibly worth it. The more you care about something, the more you’re going to master the material. An argument can be made, like Game of Schools mentions, that if it doesn't interest you, you don't participate as highly. That's definitely something to overcome as a teacher. How can you convince a student to feel passionately about a subject so they begin even a minimal mastery of the material? What can teachers do to foster personal pride in achievement (besides walking the walk, which is rather obvious)?
The game of school is very real, at least in my own experiences. I can remember as early as second grade when we were forced to write and rewrite vocabulary words on lined paper, I would write the first letter of the word down the page ten times, then the next, then the next letter. I felt it easier to write the same letter over and over instead of the same word, even if it took the same amount of time. When poor Mrs. Johnson found out multiple students were doing this, she lost her marbles. When vocab time came, she would walk around the class, eyes like an eagle's, trying to spot any cheating. Of course it didn't stop there. Throughout high school, I would look for shortcuts whether it be copying answers or just doing the bare minimum as the students in the after-school class did. What always confused me is that teachers would teach us shortcuts to learning and then get mad when we invented our own. Rhymes were given to remember the multiplication tables, but if you look up summaries to books instead of reading them then you are cheating the system. Retrospectively I understand the differences between these two but it wasn't until very recently that I understood the importance of these differences.
Throughout my years of schooling, especially early on, I always relied on the teacher to teach me. I never thought it was my responsibility to teach myself because, well, there was a teacher right there. What was his or her role if I was expected to teach myself the material? As long as I did what the teacher said, I was guaranteed a decent grade in the class. I was a strategic learner playing the game of school.
In my high school English class, a subject I really did not like, I used to do whatever was necessary to get an "A" in the class. Just like students from Fried's "The Passionate Teacher," I simply did as I was told. I handed in assignments on time and wrote exactly what I knew the teacher was looking for. When it came to group projects and presentations, no one dared to raise their hand when the teacher asked, "Does anyone have any questions or comments?" Why would they? They did their portion of the project and knew that standing at the front of the room would get them a high grade. What was the point in asking questions and putting a group on the spot? Everyone caught on to how to slide past in the class. The teacher never fought it because it was not worth her time to negotiate with the students.
In my family, I am known as the one with all the brains. I never struggled throughout school and always scored high on exams. Even in my friend group, I was the "smart one." A few years ago my best friend told me I was the smartest girl she knew. After that day, I really thought about it. I never considered myself brilliant. I just knew what I had to do in order to get a high grade. Most of the time that just meant simply showing up to class. I retained almost nothing after it was written down on an exam. It was as if the facts flowed right from my brain to the paper where they'd stay forever. I spent my entire middle and high school career studying for one test at a time. I remembered facts or ways to remember the answers to exams. I never thought on a deeper level because I was never taught or told to. At the end of senior year, I questioned my intelligence.
At graduation, I tried remembering what I learned in the previous four years that got my to where I was in that moment. I couldn't have told you anything about American or world history, Shakespeare's writing, chemistry, or physics. I think I was the only student panicking over my intelligence moments before I walked across the stage to receive my diploma. "Am I only 'smart' because I figured out the tricks in school? Everyone says college is so different. Will I still be able to get good grades? I'm only book smart, not street smart. How am I going to survive the real world?" I tried not to think about it because I thought I just sounded crazy. Little did I know that I'd be questioning it again in my sophomore year of college. The questions I asked myself two years ago are those that make me question American education today.
This article really made me think. Especially the bit about asking questions. We've all had or known exceptional teachers, and we've had not so great ones as well, but why don't those 'not-so-great' teachers ask the fantastic teachers why they're so good with kids, or how they keep a class engaged? On the other hand, why don't teachers ask students, "What can we do to make this truly important to you, to make you willing to actually work hard?" I feel these are questions that, if asked, could really turn around 'The Game of School', and could positively change things. The key indicators that the Game of School is being played is when kids aren't asking real engaging or thought-provoking questions, or when it's apparent and obvious that a teacher or student is simply doing the minimum to get by, or scrape a B. We all know people who have 'succeeded', as in gotten a degree or graduated high school, simply by doing the barest requirements, and never digging deeper, yet they still get the same 'reward', in this case a diploma or certification, as someone who really worked hard and was passionate about their work. I know I was certainly guilty of playing the Game of School in some classes in high school, for example the classes that weren't my favorite. But why weren't they my favorite? What makes more class more interesting over another? Can any class be good if the teacher is good? I think so. Right now, I find all of my classes very engaging, but, say next semester when I have to take Statistics, I need to avoid falling into playing the Game of School. I took a Stats class in high school, so I need to avoid the mentality of, "oh, I already know all this, and I want to be a spanish teacher so this class doesn't really matter as long as I pull off a B average". But since I am preparing myself for this, hopefully I can prevent it. I am so lucky that I got enough financial aid and scholarship money to come here, that it seems a waste to slack off or not be fully interested in a class. Almost like a lost opportunity.
Clearly this can all be changed though. I am a perfect example. I was never a deep learner, always knowing just what I had to do well on the tests and doing just enough classwork to get me through the class. But now, I know how bad that is and how great it is to actually do all the work and more. You learn so much more and you aren’t constantly worried that you studied the wrong little bit of info. I have a better overall concept of everything and it is MUCH more beneficial than playing the game of school.
In my opinion, we have all played the game of school. There were nights in high school where I sat at my desk and simply thought "well, there is no way I can do all of this tonight." So, I would map out my time, trying to figure out what I had to do to get by. I would say "Okay, so I'll start with my response paper for religion, since I have to submit that online. Then, I'll do my math homework, because the teacher checks that. That will leave me two hours to study for history, since the test is tomorrow. I can skip the reading, because that seems to be busy work, and the teacher won't check that." This is similar to the children who had to come up with the response questions based on their reading. As soon as they found out that the teacher wouldn't check anything as long as they had the response question, they would just stop there (Fried 94). After seeing me stressed, even my own mom would say "Hayley, just do what you have to do, and then go to bed." Those stressful and seemingly impossible nights were not enjoyable, because I was just trying to play the game of school and do whatever I had to do to win it.
Its not easy to get out of this mindset. If a long reading is assigned, it is impulse to try to get it done quickly, which makes it hard to actually enjoy it. During my first month at URI, I have done a lot of reflecting on deep learning, and learning about myself and who I want to become. Now, in college, I see school more as a way to prepare me individually for my own future, rather than forcing a whole group of students to learn the same old basic facts. However, I still find myself seeing homework as a tedious task with a lot of reading and busy work. A personal goal of mine is to think deeply and critically about all of my work, rather than see it as a list of things that I have to complete before I can move on with my day.
In order to stop the game of school, students, teachers, and administrators are all going to have to work together, and it is by no means going to be easy. The phrase "I don't wanna do homework" is far too prevalent in today's modern culture. People see homework as part of the game; a step that they have to complete before they can move forward on the game board. Students are too concerned about pleasing the teacher, and teachers are too concerned about just teaching to get their money, without caring whether or not the students get As or Fs. The key to ending this game is mindset, and everyone has to reevaluate their own mindsets and open them up to make learning an experience, rather than a game.
The Game of School absolutely exists. It seems as though students these days are making it their goal to exert as little energy as possible into their education. We have become minimalists who find shortcuts, who cheat and rely on the art of memorization to perform well. There was another section of this excerpt that truly caught my attention. It is the fact that most people in a school are thinking about the steps ahead and not what they are doing right that second. When you take notes in class you think about the exam that is going to be based on them. You desperately try to remember the hints that your teacher told you in class of what the test would be on. When a teacher assigns homework, you think about how it will impact your grade if you do not complete it. We as students have grown to focus on outcomes and results, not what is happening at that very moment. This is a mistake because it disguises moments of discovery. How can you discover, learn and treasure something when all you can think about is what comes next? Like a check list, school feels like an obligation and less of a desire. Figuring out how to change the perspective of students back to the first grader, when everything was fresh and new to the mind. We must be eager to learn because that it what our future depends on. That hunger to gain new knowledge and improve our skills is what will drive us through life. We need to take our lives by the horns, by stepping up, living in the moment and performing to the best of our ability.
In my town, helicopter parents were common and there was nothing they wanted more than for their child to look like the best. I knew lots of people involved in things they hated, just to give them a boost when applying for college. For example, people would be involved in community service, which from the outside looks great. However, they didn't enjoy what they were doing except for the fact that it made their resume more competitive. At my school, parents competed with other parents about whose child took more AP courses, not because their child actually enjoyed the subject, but just to play the game of school. In high school, I always tried to do what it took to get the A, and looking back, I believe that was everyone's goal.
Now that I am at URI, things are different in a good way. I don't believe the game of school is as strong and competitive because it is a new kind of school. I do believe some people are here just to receive a degree with the littlest work possible and to be on their way, and I do believe that some professors just care about getting their paycheck, but I know things are different. Since college has a big price tag and it is setting students up for the workforce, it is even more crucial that they focus on actually learning the information and understanding each course. There are not as many things to get in the way such as helicopter parenting and troublemaking students and it is up to each individual to tackle school on their own. I want to take things beyond the game of school in college because the game of school is only going to hurt in the long run.
Lastly, I believe that the game of school is hurting the efforts to improve schools. People need to change their mindsets right now. School systems might be thinking that they will just give easier tests to improve their school standings and grades or that they will hire teachers who will pass students that give little effort. If schools took the time to see the problem, they can create a solution.
When reading The Game of School, I often reflected on my own high school experience. The author of "Passionate Teaching" lays out indicators of the Game of School, which include students asking questions about reading assignments based off only the first page or asking questions so wild that the teacher knows did not come from the reading at all. Thinking back, I realize that not only I myself, but my teachers were participating in the game of school. I became well aware of the expectations of my teachers and did just that. I was under the assumption that the grade received at the end of the year defined what type of students I was. And honestly, it did. I received mostly As, but how many of those As did I really deserve? I've always wanted to learn and be a deep learner, but my teachers taught in a strategic way that made it near impossible to be anything more.
Looking back on how I viewed high school and grades, I realize that this is not true. Higher grades do not mean you are any smarter, it just meant you knew how to take tests. Majority of my high school career, the SATs was a main topic of discussion. We always spent some advisory days out of the year to focus on SAT preparation, and in later years, every advisory class became a SAT prep class. Typically, students in my school used advisory as a free period to get other work done, however, I used advisory to get advice from my teacher. Due to their being no time for that anymore, I feel as though my relationship with my advisory teacher suffered my junior and senior year. And until today, I have always thought she changed and lost interest, but now realize that she was just another pawn in the game of school.
The reading mentions how teachers do not do what they can do to help us better our learning. I do agree that teachers sometimes get stuck in the routine of being told what to teach and focusing their whole lesson plans on that, however, I think more responsibility should be on the students. I thoroughly believe that when students start to publicly stick up for their education and explain how they feel, a change will happen and they will be heard. It's easy to have a debate among adults about the needs of students, but what would happen if you brought actual students into the debate? I think then is when we will see improvement in the American Educational system.
In the reading there are both negative and positive impacts today's school system makes. Clearly, there is an issue with the way of learning, but no one seems to honestly approach the topic. Everyone seems to know there is a problem but doesn't quite know what to do. I believe that when the voice of the students is heard, we will change the future of learning.
The reading didn't really change my personal view of education, because I have not experienced the GOS personally on a large scale. I can understand that for some assignments in my life I just did whatever I had to, but I really do get something out of every homework assignment or reading. I do think there is a big connection between the GOS idea and the mindsets we learned about, as well as with the idea of strategic and deep learning. This analogy just takes things out of a student lens and into a lens through which one can view an entire school.
As in the first example given by Fried in the after school YMCA program, the kids quickly figured out how to get by with the minimum amount of work. This, and work like it that we see at a later level, is evidence of the Game of School being played. Sure, it might not be too hard to identify a teacher's system and to learn how to get by with minimum effort. I must admit, I've been guilty of it in the past. At the same time, I've encountered teachers who completely make up grades, don't read the assignments which many students work very hard on, and are extremely biased in the classroom. These are all examples of this Game being played.
In my personal high school experience, I never liked to play teachers, and I disliked when despite my initial efforts in the classroom, when teachers played me. Again, I must fess up to my own crimes. I, from time to time, took the easy way out, having charted my teacher's expectations through and through, took the easy way out. Whether that be cutting corners on a paper or other assignment, or in some cases, not turning an assignment in, I'm not proud of it. In very few of my classrooms however, it was very, very evident to everyone present that we were being played, and that we in turn were okay to play right back.
Now that I'm here at URI, I'm determined to avoid these behaviors. I believe when I've committed these academic sins in the past, they were in part spurred on by teachers who clearly did not care all that much. Even if I was to encounter such behaviors here, I'm determined not to look back, and to continue to persevere in the classroom and always do my best. To improve schools in the future, students need to understand at an early age that an education is necessary in today's world, and that despite how boring some parts of it may be, paying attention and applying yourself in school is a matter of huge importance. Students going into high school need to understand that they can determine so much of their future in the next four years and that while they may be able to play the Game in many situations, this will not benefit them in the long run. At the same time, we need to fill every classroom with educators who truly care about these kids. There must be effort on both sides, but as teachers encounter students who just seem to not care, they may become staid and less passionate in their role. I don't know how that can be fixed, but that a teacher's visible effort and care in the classroom has such a huge impact on kids needs to be something that students understand as well.
I definitely used the Game of School in high school; I prioritized courses based on which were the most difficult, and, regrettably, which I cared about the most, even though all were equally important to my education. In freshman year, I did not even do all of my math homework, and math always fell behind science classes because I never liked the subject. By senior year, however, I had adjusted my learning and was determined to succeed in all of my classes, and my grades reflected that. Beyond grades, though, my personal knowledge base reflects my effort; I truly remember my work from my senior year courses, not because they were the most recent, but because I embraced deep learning instead of strategic learning and saw its benefits. In college, I plan to continue deep learning, researching subjects from each course that interest me and attempting to understand the core parts of every class on a deep and personal level so I can retain information long-term and relate it to information for other courses.
Throughout The Greatest Obstacle We Face, Fried describes a languid school environment that all of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, can easily recall as being a near constant throughout our education. I certainly recognized several of the motifs discussed by Fried from my high school and early-education schooling. “The Game of School”, as defined in The Greatest Obstacle We Face, is the lackadaisical learning environment where “students pretend to learn, and teachers pretend to teach”. Throughout high school I often myself unwittingly playing “The Game of School” creating the surface-level appearance of a dedicated student while consistently avoiding unnecessary work and maintaining a high GPA with as little work as possible. Although I am trying to throw off the shackles formed by my time spent playing the game, I can still feel years of bad habits trying to take me over even in college. I believe that in order for any type of scholastic reform to be accomplished, students, teachers, and adminstrators must acknowledge that there are inherent flaws in the game being played. While teachers and students wordlessly play the game, there is no chance for schools to ever achieve real learning past the surface.
This is by far the realest thing I have ever read. I am 100% guilty of playing the game of school because like stated in the reading I did what I had to do to get the grade I wanted. It sounds horrible, but it is also extremely eye opening to read this. My teacher last year for English never made us actually write a paper. We would work on one in class which was usually about a book that we read in class and by read I mean we would listen to it on a tape. Then she would tell us to grab out a piece of paper and just answer the essay question and as long as it was handed in on time then you would receive a good grade. I do think it is because teachers do not want to stray away from the curriculum because they are scared. I can recall another instance where someone asked a teacher about a specific topic and the teacher said he used to teach it, but now with all the testing he had to teach only the important things for the tests to finish up what he had to cover by the end of the school year. There are some teachers that are extremely passionate about teaching and truly make you work in the classroom and earn the grade and then there are others that play the game of school. In my personal opinion I think that at some point or another every student and teacher is guilty of playing the school of game.
(I just wanted to write about what came to mind as soon as I finished the reading, but if you want me to use the questions as a guide in which I just saw now I will fix this!)
Looking back, I realize that this is not true. A's were given to the students who had memorized the material, not truly understood it. Getting the highest grade didn't mean that you were better than anyone else, it just meant that you memorized that particular formula or word for that particular test. "...the curriculum is loaded with so much material that it can only be "covered" through constant lecturing and note-taking... Game-playing artificiality replaces authenticity, and enduring learning falls by the wayside. (p122)" I honestly cannot remember a time in high school where teachers really tried to make me find the answers to thought provoking questions. I was only asked to memorize and study for a test. A huge part of my education has always been CMTs, SATs, and ACTs. Teachers made it out that these examinations would affect us for the rest our lives, and put a huge emphasis on testing. The first time I took the SATs, I got an average score. I was beside myself. I had been trained to believe that average was bad, or unacceptable. If I wanted to succeed, I had to get that 'above and beyond' test grade. Perhaps the most important thing I learned in high school came from one teacher. She believed that testing was not an applicable way to test students knowledge, and that a test score did not define your intelligence. While studying for the SATs, she told me that "You don't get smarter suddenly and get a better score. You learn how to take the test. It's not a matter of intelligence." To this day, I agree with her statement.
As the reading says, there are negatives and positive aspects about modern schooling, but nothing will change if we don't change our own mindset. We cannot play the game of school as we do and hope for the best or think that it will change on its own. Each of us needs to add and change an aspect of it so that students and teachers are no longer dancing around the subject, but truly learning.
In my high school English class, a subject I really did not like, I used to do whatever was necessary to get an "A" in the class. Just like students from Fried's "The Passionate Teacher," I simply did as I was told. I handed in assignments on time and wrote exactly what I knew the teacher was looking for. When it came to group projects and presentations, no one dared to raise their hand when the teacher asked, "Does anyone have any questions or comments?" Why would they? They did their portion of the project and knew that standing at the front of the room would get them a high grade. What was the point in asking questions and putting a group on the spot? Everyone caught on to how to slide past in the class. The teacher never fought it because it was not worth her time to negotiate with the students.
In my family, I am known as the one with all the brains. I never struggled throughout school and always scored high on exams. Even in my friend group, I was the "smart one." A few years ago my best friend told me I was the smartest girl she knew. After that day, I really thought about it. I never considered myself brilliant. I just knew what I had to do in order to get a high grade. Most of the time that just meant simply showing up to class. I retained almost nothing after it was written down on an exam. It was as if the facts flowed right from my brain to the paper where they'd stay forever. I spent my entire middle and high school career studying for one test at a time. I remembered facts or ways to remember the answers to exams. I never thought on a deeper level because I was never taught or told to. At the end of senior year, I questioned my intelligence.
At graduation, I tried remembering what I learned in the previous four years that got my to where I was in that moment. I couldn't have told you anything about American or world history, Shakespeare's writing, chemistry, or physics. I think I was the only student panicking over my intelligence moments before I walked across the stage to receive my diploma. "Am I only 'smart' because I figured out the tricks in school? Everyone says college is so different. Will I still be able to get good grades? I'm only book smart, not street smart. How am I going to survive the real world?" I tried not to think about it because I thought I just sounded crazy. Little did I know that I'd be questioning it again in my sophomore year of college. The questions I asked myself two years ago are those that make me question American education today.